


A Reflection on an Ancient World

by Anatthema



Series: The Gods of Vlas-Kaj [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Fantasy World, Gen, Gods, OCs - Freeform, Original Story - Freeform, fantasy gods, original writing - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anatthema/pseuds/Anatthema
Summary: I am creation given heartbeat. I am matter itself as every physical substance exists throughout an ever-expanding universe. I am the writer of worlds and the creator of stories. I am the far-off sky of stars you gaze upon as you look into the night when you wonder what is beyond your reach. Every particle in every galaxy in an infinite cosmos exists within my domain. I am the furthest world and all that you hold close. I am the expanse to which all creation exists within as you ponder the purpose the world has given you. I drive the narrative of every world which is born of little purpose, and I give meaning to that which has none.
Series: The Gods of Vlas-Kaj [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1544515
Kudos: 3





	A Reflection on an Ancient World

Eons ago, there was nothing. A single point in a new universe, one of many, many universes. The multiverse was, and still is, infinitely vast. This new universe wasn’t anything special in this sea of them. New universes form all the time from nothing. What force creates them, nobody knows. This new universe expanded, with a massive burst of energy, which brought the first two gods into being. Dimension: the god of space, matter, and the physical forces in the universe. And Absence: god of the void, a great expanse of nothing, the link between universes, and the counterbalance to matter itself. Two twin gods in a bright new world, a blank slate, perfect for their shaping. And slowly, over millennia, the empty new universe was shaped into something great. At least, Dimension hoped it was great.

Chaos in a growing new world was inevitable, and as such, Churanak, the god of chaos was formed. They were a menace of a god, wrecking what Dimension sought to create simply to get a laugh. It wasn’t entirely their fault. Chaos was woven into their very being, as was the fate of the gods. But despite this, Dimension did their work. Planets were formed, and on them, life. Dimension planted the seeds for life to evolve. With life, came the other gods. Nymphaea was born from the wilds, Vita-Nex as life and death itself began to take hold, and Adfectus as these new mortals began forming thought and emotion. The gods worked together, shaping a world that they would be proud of. They chose a simple planet, hurtling around a sun in a far-off galaxy, to be their first project. They called it Vlas-Kaj. Life didn’t spring up in the visionary state immediately, the seeds were planted and over eons they grew and changed as the gods saw fit. Aided in their evolution through the gods’ hands, they formed in their vision much quicker than the evolutionary process in most universes. 

Some races were favoured by the gods more than others. Tieflings were created by the hands of Churanak, a group of loud, boisterous, and adventurous horned beings made in their image. Vita-Nex created Aasimar, the shining paragons of Vita-Nex’s bidding, who watched over the cycle of life and death with a careful hand. Nymphaea created the beasts, a massive array of species to roam the wilds, as well as the Beastoids, creatures made in the image of said beasts. Dimension and Absence created the dragons, winged magic-users to reflect their images. Adfectus meanwhile, fueled the knowledge and emotion these creations would gain through their evolution. Humans and their branching paths in evolution, the Offhumans, were a fluke. None of the gods intended them to become the dominant species, and yet, as odd as it was, they prevailed. 

And so, over time that would be incomprehensible to a single mortal, the gods’ first project, Vlas-Kaj, was born. That left the world where it was today, and Dimension, while still giving aid to mortals who asked, couldn’t help but feel a sense of melancholy about it all. There were days where they wished they would snap their claws and erase all of it, starting from scratch, in a world where the mortals had less autonomy. They knew this would upset the other gods. Their twin, Absence, loved watching their intricate lives of heartbreak and sorrow, triumph and victory. They couldn’t quite understand, they tried watching them. But it was all so confusing, so utterly alien. They couldn’t understand their mindsets, why they would do what they did. Their thinking was so different from a god’s. They had no purpose beyond the experiment Dimension had built. This world was simply their first trial run, and yet, the other gods seemed more proud. Vita-Nex kept watch over the cycle of life and death with utmost respect, never veering from their purpose. Churanak, while mostly interested in the multiverse, still interacted with mortals from time to time. Nymphaea mostly stayed in their slumber, but guarded over the natural world with a wrathful eye. Adfectus… well, they mostly just had to deal with the torment their nature provided. Dimension rarely contacted mortals, mostly just granting prayers their clerics gave, without much direct communication. They just sat, reflecting on their experiment of a world which hadn’t gone entirely to plan. 

They had started to plant the seeds of life on other planets scattered across the galaxies, though ended up just leaving them to fester, without much divine intervention. Their plans never quite worked. Mortals, no matter which planet they were formed on, always had that odd something about them. They never thought like the gods, and even when being made in the image of the gods, never were made like how Dimension wanted. And so, they came back, failed project after failed project, to look at Vlas-Kaj once again. Sure, it was thriving, but it always felt off. Dimension’s perfect artistic vision, it never quite was painted in the way they wanted. Everything felt incomplete. And perhaps that’s what their worlds always would be to them, a sad bustling state of completeness, yet never truly satisfying. A picture being complete, yet never finished. 

They would write narratives in their head of the stories their worlds would tell, but nothing ever quite worked. That one puzzle piece wouldn’t fit into place and they would scrap their world and leave it to its own devices. It was a sad state, a god without a goal. Dimension sometimes wished they could be like the other gods. A god was supposed to have a purpose, yet they couldn’t quite complete their purpose every time they wrote up a new world. They felt incomplete. Nymphaea guarded the wilds, controlling the balance of nature. Vita-Nex guided souls to wherever they may end up. Adfectus contained the weight of knowledge and emotion so no one else would have to. Absence watched from their void, acting as a guide for the few who dared to traverse other worlds. And Churanak found their own purpose, riding wherever chaos may take them, building whatever they saw fit. Dimension tried their best, creating new worlds and guarding over space-time. But it felt empty. And they knew a god should not feel empty. The only reason a god existed was to fulfil their purpose. And yet, they couldn’t quite get there. 

Dimension thought, and then concluded, perhaps they should ask their sibling. Absence watched mortals, they might be able to come to a conclusion about the success of their world more than they could. Mustering up the strength, they entered the void. It wasn’t uncommon for the gods to meet there, Absence didn’t mind company. The white abyss was quite strange compared to the vastness of space, where everything existed. Here, all that there was were its lonely guardian and the link to the multiverse. It wasn’t their domain, in fact, it was quite the opposite. 

After a long period of searching through the vast white void, with endless links to the multiverse and not much else besides a few small pockets where Dimension only assumed led to personal spaces the other gods spent their downtime in, they found them. Their twin, Absence, a hulking white dragon. They were staring at a small hole in the fabric of the void. Dimension could only assume this led to the mortal world, and Absence was, as they most often did, simply watching. Absence craned their neck up, noticing the visitor in their domain, and their often somber facial expression twisted into one of delight. 

“Dimension! Welcome, my sibling. What brings you to my domain today? It is quite unusual for you to venture to the void. You always seem to be off, working on some new project. Come, sit and watch for a while. Tell me what you think. You never seem to have time to observe the world. It is all quite fascinating, is it not?” Absence said, gesturing for them to take a seat beside them.

“Actually, that is exactly why I came to you today. You always seem quite fascinated in Vlas-Kaj. I would like to know, what exactly do you find in it? I cannot help but feel a sense of... unfulfillment in all of this. What do you see in the mortals? What is so fascinating about them?” Dimension asked. 

“Why don’t you just watch? It is quite interesting.”

Dimension reluctantly took a seat, and observed the window to the mortal world in which Absence sat at. The window was focussed on a group of five mortals: a dragon, a tiefling, an aasimar, a human, and a beastoid. An oddly diverse group of mortals, Dimension thought. Often the different races of the world stuck to themselves. It was indeed quite strange. The group looked… oddly proud. They were sitting in a tavern, drinking and celebrating, as if something amazing had just been pulled off. 

“They saved their continent.” Absence told Dimension.

“Come again?” Dimension inquired. 

“They’re adventurers. They travel around, doing heroic deeds and saving other mortals. They just stopped a cataclysmic disaster. The diabolical wizard that threatened to destroy their continent was defeated by them.”

“They did that on their own?”

“Yes. Despite what they look, some mortals pack quite a punch. I’m sure the strongest of them could even begin to rival extra-dimensional beings and any number of ancient horrors left on their planet. Many train to grow extremely powerful. Did you not know this? I have met many mortals who have travelled to the void to venture across the multiverse. They hold immense power.”  
“They… couldn’t rival the gods, could they?” Dimension asked, stunned at this information. Meanwhile they watched as the tiefling took a massive glass of ale, and drank it in one go. The other party members cheered and clapped. 

“No. I don’t believe so. There is a fundamental wall that separates them from us. To harm us would be to disrupt the universe itself. They could quite possibly rival any number of semi-immortal beings however. The fey, The Ancients, and possibly any number of demigods, they could all quite possibly fall due to a mortal.”

Dimension nodded. The semi-immortal beings of the world were something they quite liked to dismiss. They bridged the gap between mortal and god, and were not truly immortal as a god may be. The fey, nasty tricksters and deal-makers were a force to be reckoned with. The Ancients were as close to immortal as a mortal could get. Dimension knew of these beings that wandered the realm, coming into existence and rarely leaving it. The most well known of these, even Dimension knew. Harvey, the shapeshifter, had become so well-known that even the gods despised his existence. The demigods were mortals who had ascended through powerful magic, or even rarer, blessings of the gods. They mimicked the gods, parenting domains, but their reach was far more limited, and far more mortal. Dimension hadn’t blessed a demigod in centuries. They knew that their presence was a mockery of what the gods stood for. 

“So what is so special about them? What drives them? Why do they care?” Dimension asked. 

“I… do not know that myself. I am sorry, my twin. I have asked many mortals, but I am still a god. I do not understand, and I do not think I will. But I find them fascinating, is that not enough? You like stories right? You want to tell a narrative? Well look no further, because the mortal world is rife with intense and thrilling narratives, all that you could ever wish. Tragedy, victory, comedy. Every story the mind could imagine is present just right down there.”

“But none of them have gone the way I planned. They are all so strange and bizarre. Their outlook on life is something I just cannot grasp.”

“And so it may be that way. I have found over time I cannot understand, but it is something I must come to accept. We are beyond their world, but does that not mean the narrative can only be thrilling?”

“I made them to be like us. I guided the dragons along their complex and twisting path of evolution. I left the humans to their own devices as they spread and diversified despite knowing they were not in the grand plan. I let the other gods create their own passion projects. And yet. I am not satisfied. No matter how hard I try, I cannot create a world in which the mortals are like us. They may share our experiences, but do they share our mindset? Why is the fate of the universe I created so cruel as to not allow me to sympathise with what I have made, or even feel a sense of conclusion?” Dimension sighed, starting back into the window as the seeming leader of the party, the dragon, gave a sort of inspirational speech. “I want to feel satisfied with the narrative I’ve constructed.”

“Then perhaps, you should watch with me. You say you feel a sense of emptiness and unfulfillment, but could that possibly be because you spent your time creating world after world and scrapping it at the first sign of incompleteness? Vlas-Kaj, as well as every other world you have worked on, is bustling and alive. The mortals living on it perform deeds of intense heroism and bravery, treachery and villainy, love and compassion. The narrative you so lack has been staring you in the eyes for so long and yet you turn a blind eye to the dramatism of it all. Every single mortal life beats their narrative hearts. Every single life is a narrative. The narrative may not be what you intended. They may not think or act like you, but they tell a story nonetheless.” Absence stared at Dimension, their eyes blazing with passion. “You seek a narrative, and yet the world itself is a narrative in which mortals write their legacies.” 

“I… may have some things to rethink. Thank you Absence. Do you mind if I stay with you and watch these mortals for a while?”

“Not a problem at all Dimension. Please, it gets lonely in the void. You should visit more often. I would love to watch with you.” 

“Thank you Absence,” Dimension replied with a smile. They adjusted their seating position, as to get comfortable, and began watching the scene with Absence. The party of adventurers began laughing and drinking into the night. The alcohol slowly took influence over them as they told the tavern the story of how they slayed the great evil. The tiefling began doing a dance on the table while playing a lute, the aasimar conversed with the tavern goers, the beastoid lurked in the corner, the human engaged in a drinking contest, and the dragon leader seemed to continue recounting their story to the tavern. It was quite fascinating, all things considered. Dimension became immersed in the mortals’ doings, watching with intent. Perhaps Absence was right, and their affairs did hold some merit to them. After what seemed like far longer than what it actually was in the grand scheme of the universe, Dimension asked what had been plaguing their mind.

“Absence?”

“Yes?”

“Did we do a good job? Was this worth it? Should we be satisfied with this?”

“I think you know the answer to that question already.”

Absence was right. Dimension was purely looking for confirmation to cease the new storm of feelings within them. They knew, at least a small part of them knew, that yes, they did do a good job. Perhaps it may take longer to fully come to terms with that, and maybe they would need to watch the mortals for more time, but they knew that this world had morphed into something great. Maybe their intentions hadn’t been fully realized, but a great and powerful narrative had been crafted, as Absence told them. They would simply have to spend more time to discover that narrative themselves.


End file.
